The letter L in my mind is associated with the word Loneliness. A sad word, to be sure. Unfortunately, many writers are afflicted by it. I am. I’m an extreme introvert. I live in my head most of the time. I communicate with my fictional characters on a deeper level than I do with my neighbors or even family. With my characters, I’m open. I don’t feel constrained to hide my quirks or my oddities. Just the opposite: those quirks make my characters unique, my writing original. Often, the heroes of my stories become my best friends, at least until I’m done writing those stories, while my few real-life friends feel baffled by my insistent ‘daydreaming.’ Thank the stars for the internet and for my blogger friends.
It was on the internet that I finally found like-minded people, the community of other writers. They blog about hearing voices of their characters, and I think: yeah, me too. They blog about their research into the best poisons for their upcoming mystery, and I think: ditto. I did online research once for a homemade bomb. For the same reason, of course: my heroine needed to disarm a bomb by magical means. We are united in our half-humorous concern that the police might be interested in us because of our ‘dangerous’ research topics.
The positive outcome is that my online writer-friends alleviate my Loneliness. They frequently understand me better than my kids or my sister do. We are sailing the same boat, weathering the same storms, heading towards the same shore. We want to be read. When the visitors of my blog comment on my posts, I feel happy. Understood. Appreciated. I’m not alone anymore.
For many introverts like me, our digital friends’ blogs are a lifeline. They make us all feel connected. Blog away, friends. I want to read your blogs. And comment, so you feel appreciated too.
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On a distantly related topic, I want to say that Loneliness is often a theme of science fiction stories. Case in point: The Martian by Andy Weir. Cosmonauts are often alone. As I’m not only a writer but also a book cover designer, I recently made a couple of pre-made book covers with the theme of Loneliness in mind. I didn’t know at the time I worked on those covers that I would be writing this guest post, but they fit perfectly, and I want to share them with you. I hope you enjoy them.
All the images I used in both my composite covers come from the free image site Pixabay.com.
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Olga Godim is a speculative fiction writer and book cover designer. Her website and blog: https://olgagodim.wordpress.com/
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